Texas 2022-23 Discussion

[chartong]

Now that I have reached my junior year in high school (I’m sure many of you believed that could never happen and that I would stay a freshman forever), the voices have instructed me to construct a tier list of the Quiz Bowl teams located in Texas (as is tradition).

I’m not ranking B or C teams because it’s too early in the season to figure out what each team’s roster is going to be, but I’ll try to make some educated guesses as to what A team rosters will be. Teams are not ordered within tiers.

Tier 1 - Contenders


St. Mark’s –

St. Mark’s seems to have fully recovered from losing Ned and Aayush all the way back in 2021. The roster of Aditya, Ethan, and the now-graduated Tomek and Miki pretty much swept the SSNCT field last year (only losing to their B team). They also have a deep bench filled with solid specialists (that aforementioned B team) in addition to Ethan and Aditya, who have established themselves as great history/litfa players respectively. If they keep up the pace, they will be a solidly top 10 or top 5 team this year nationally.

Kinkaid –

Though technically a rebuilding year for us, I still think we can remain a top team nationally, but at the very least we are still one of the top teams in Texas. I remain the top history player in the nation and have been improving at lit and fa, while Ali (who made somewhat of a splash at last year’s HSNCT)’s grind and willingness to improve is unrivaled. Unfortunately, the departure of Vedul and Connor has exposed some massive weaknesses in our coverage, but that only motivates us to improve more. We have also managed to pick up some solid “”role players”” this year who I expect to contribute quite a bit. I think by the end of the year we could be in a position to contend for the state title and possibly a high nats finish.

Strake Jesuit –

“As is often the case, Strake graduated 75% of their A team, but as is often the case, they retain a strong roster with only two seniors.” - Palavajjhalians 1:4

Strake is feeling the loss of Dylan, Nhat, and especially Kile this year, but will continue to remain a strong team in the circuit, especially on NAQT. To this day I still have no clue what Dwight’s categories are, but he manages to do well at most of the tournaments he plays at. Strake also has a deep bench of young specialists (think Justin Wang and Max Chen) in whom I see potential to become very good by the end of the season.

Cinco Ranch –

Cinco Ranch is a program with a lot of potential this year. They made an impressive run at HSNCT last year despite lacking one of their leading scorers, and they still retain ¾ of that team in Tamim, Hayden and Dimitrius. They also possess a number of dedicated players in the rest of their roster (we had a very close game with Cinco C at TQBA Jamboree (IS 212 A) just last weekend), though I question how well this team scales past the A set/IS set difficulty. This year, I think Cinco should hope to prove themselves a solid program even without Aaryan at the helm.

Tier 2 – “Play In Tournament” teams


Seven Lakes –

Seven Lakes basically lost their entire A team last year, but retains a few people, especially Keerthana, that could lead to them shaking up the circuit this year. In addition, they also inherited some sweaty Beckendorff middle schoolers (as usual) who did well at last year’s MSNCT. I question how well this team will scale in difficulty, but if they study up they could be very solid this year.

Greenhill –

Greenhill too will be forced to cope with the loss of their first three scorers, who made a name for themselves junior year before becoming very apathetic as seniors (sorry Josh). The one plus is that they gained a set of very dedicated middle schoolers who performed well at MSNCT last year, though it remains to be seen how they will adapt to the high school canon. I think if Nikky, Kate, Aaron and Maya improve, they will be a solid team by the end of the year.

Heights —

Heights has kind of come out of nowhere, appearing on the circuit only last year. Led by junior Bryce Cruise, this team seems to be on a rapid upward trajectory; unfortunately, like every other team in this tier, I’m not sure how well this team will scale up in difficulty. They should have a good season though, especially if Bryce’s teammates develop into better supporting players.


Tier 3 – Rebuild years

St. John’s —

St John’s roster basically fell apart at the end of last season, so I have no idea if their established players will even be participating this season. They seem to have juniors Arjun and Shreyes as well as sophomore and TH Rogers alum Sid Dasari, who seem to overlap quite a bit. If this team can diversify and begin improving at non-history/geo they could potentially move up to the next tier.

LASA —

LASA is another very established program that kind of dropped off the face of the earth during the pandemic — after Lena Birkholz graduated in 2021, the program effectively went on hiatus (aside from an appearance at NHBB JV nationals last year). Thankfully, it seems like they will be making a comeback this year. The team seems to be young, and Adam Escandell (who I believe is still the team's coach) is a dedicated coach, so they might be able to surprise some people this year, though it’s definitely a rebuilding year for the once great LASA.

Wakeland —

I have heard whispers indicating Geetan’s return this year after a long hiatus post-2021 HSNCT. I’m unsure of how much of his history/fa knowledge is still intact following the 2 year hiatus and even more uncertain of whether he’ll have an actual team, but I think Wakeland can still upset some teams this year if they do decide to return.

Plano West -

Like with some of the other teams in this tier, I have no idea what Plano West's roster is going to be, nor do I know how good their potential recruits will be. The loss of Shardul hurts them here, but a combination of Adithi and Jasper graduates will probably do decently in the Dallas circuit.

Bellaire —

Bellaire also kind of faded from relevancy after 2021 with the graduation of Alkis Boutas. This year's team is led by senior Letian Li, a decent history/geo player, but I’m not sure what categories/strengths his teammates possess. Like St. John’s, this team can make the jump to the next tier if Letian’s teammates can develop into solid supporting specialists.

Taylor —

Taylor ends up in this tier by default because their entire team graduated last year. I’m confident they will be able to recruit this year, but I am unsure of the quality of these potential recruits.

Final thoughts

Call me biased, but I think despite the loss of most of its top players last year, the Texas circuit remains one of the strongest in the nation (behind only Illinois imo). I wish my fellow Texans well on the national stage this year; I believe a year of good national rankings and finishes is in order for us.

The first big tournament of the season seems to the St. Mark’s Invitational on 10/15, so I encourage all reading this to register if you have not already. Happy quizbowling!

Thoughts? Comments? Discuss them in the thread below. There it is, that’s the end of the post

[Deven Hagen]

Personally, I believe Kinkaid should be the favorites for state champions. A team with Cole, Ali, and new recruits is going to be really good, despite the losses of Vedul and Connor. Cole was already the best history player last year and he continues to generalize more and more. Ali is very dedicated and I am sure that he will impress. I’ve heard that one of the new recruits is a great geography specialist, and I also believe they will turn some heads this year.

[Texas Über Alles]

Very accurate write up. For us (Heights) in particular, you were pretty much spot on. I am a very good Lit player with solid natural knowledge in History, Owen has made gains on Sci (especially bonuses) and continues to be an excellent Trash player (I know it’s weird to say, but the data backs him up), and Katherine and Zane have lots of broad random knowledge that helps us out a ton. But as HSNCT last year showed, we really struggle to scale, especially on Sci, where we only took 20% of tossups we heard (Lit was also hit hard; we dropped from around 75% on IS/IS A sets to 54% at HSNCT, and my power % was awful). However, if we continue to get better, we could upset a couple of those top tier teams.
I’m going to have to agree with Deven in terms of an overall assessment. Cinco, St. Mark’s (I haven’t played against them this year, but I’m sure they’re just as good as they were last year), and Strake are extremely good, but the 2-headed monster of Cole and Ali is just too much. We played them at TQBA Jamboree, and they were buzzing on firstline clues before I could even comprehend them (I think they had 9 combined powers that game).
Bellaire is one 3rd tier team that could work their way into the 2nd. At Jamboree they had higher PPB than we did, and appear to have simply been screwed by a difficult schedule. Their losses came against Strake A, Strake B, Cinco A, Challenger Strawberry Park, Seven Lakes, and Kinkaid: all mid-to-top tier teams. Bellaire is definitely a team to watch out for.
Katy Jordan is another team that I feel deserves a shoutout. Rishav Sarkar has terrorized D2 for years, and Jordan finally made the jump to D1 at Jamboree: finishing a respectable T-5th. They likely won’t challenge any of the top-tier teams, but should definitely be a solid contender on the Houston circuit.

Heights will be playing closer to home on October 15 in TQBA Kickoff, so for those of y’all playing that, I’ll see y’all there.

Happy Quizbowling everybody!

[chartong]

Babe wake up, new Groger Ranks just dropped.

Congratulations to the Texas teams that were ranked:

9. Kinkaid A
10. Strake Jesuit A
19. St. Mark's A
33. Cinco Ranch A
40. LASA A
44. Cistercian B
50. Greenhill A
53. Heights A
55. St. Mark's B
63. St. John's
71. Bellaire
76. Cistercian A
80. Cinco Ranch B
83. John Cooper
84. Jasper
99. Cy-Fair
102. St. Thomas High
107. Westside
111. Strake Jesuit B
150. Coppell A

Now that teams have had the chance to play some tournaments, I've taken the time to make some comments/updates on my original post:

• I continue to be impressed by Bryce Cruise; despite playing in a somewhat weaker field, he still managed an impressive 4.6 p/g on IS 213. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the rest of his team has managed to get close to the same level yet.

• LASA made their first appearance on the circuit since Lena Birkholz in 2021 -- while they got off to a somewhat slower start than previous LASA teams (think 2014, for example, with 2 LASA teams on the podium at HSNCT), they still managed a solid 5 p/g and 21 ppb on IS-213. As far as I can tell, it's only up from here.

• Episcopal, most well known for getting owned by Kinkaid in every sport, played its first ever quiz bowl tournament this past month. While it was certainly a slow start for the blue school, they managed to field two teams, which is an achievement enough on its own.

• Congratulations to St. Mark's on winning their annual invitational this year. I was impressed by their intangibles; they work cohesively as a team and have excellent game sense (kind of like DCC last year). I think this will manifest itself in more tournament wins for the still-young team. I was also very impressed by St. Mark's B, who also worked quite well as a team and had some very impressive buzzes against us in what ended up being a very close game.

Looking forward to playing more Texas teams this year, happy quizbowling to all, and to all a good night.

[Texas Über Alles]

Some observations I made at and following TQBA Yuletide Celebration (attended by all of the top Houston teams and Greenhill):

To begin with, don't worry about Strake A. They played with 3 players and it was clear they were missing someone to nail down Science. Unfortunately for everyone else, they do have a Science player in the form of Max Chen. Once he plays with the As, they'll be in very good shape. I did notice that they seemed to struggle with art and music questions, but that might also be an area where Max will also shore them up.

Ali had a great tournament. He ended the day outscoring Cole although Cole did outpower Ali by a significant margin. I did notice Cole putting down his buzzer for most of power on some questions, so he might've been laying off a little (or he might've been just conserving his brainpower), but he still had a great tournament. Despite the lower number of total points, the power numbers speak for themselves. Saturday just goes to show that at higher difficulties, he won't be quite as dominant (assuming he wasn't laying off). However, Ali has proven he can cover when needed. The question now is whether they can develop a 3rd or 4th player to complement Cole and Ali's weak spots. Will and Shem both finished the day without a power.

Seven Lakes has impressed me the last couple tournaments as a team solidly in that 30-90 National rank. I think I probably underestimated them earlier in the year. They've had Keerthana for a while, but with the emergence of Aditya, who matriculated up from Beckendorff this year, they have a good 1-2 punch. They also have a wide assortment of players who can provide 10-30 PPG as well, but with them, like every other team in their tier (which I see consisting of Seven Lakes, us, Greenhill, Cistercian [who I haven't seen play, but the stats look good], and probably LASA and the Strake and St. Mark's B teams), the focus needs to be on learning more clues and getting more powers. The team who does that the best out of that group of teams has the ability to go far.

Those are just some of my thoughts; I'm interested to hear what y'all's thoughts are.

Full stats from Saturday can be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... J/pubhtml#.

[Texas Über Alles]

With the last regular season tournament behind us, here is my pre-Nats roundup. And although I won't be discussing them here, special shoutout to Cistercian, who finished 7th in the Open Division at SSNCT.

Kinkaid
They seemed like the team to beat from the beginning of the year and that has not changed as the year progressed. They only have one loss against Texas teams this year and cleared the field by over two points per bonus on their way to an undefeated State Championship. Cole is still an incredible history player, Ali strikes fear into the hearts of all opposing science players (except maybe Max Chen, who 4-0ed him on it in one game at State), both of them have incredible coverage in other areas of the distribution, and Will Pielop and Shem Brown also come through with valuable points. I definitely feel like they have a fighter's chance at winning either nationals.

St. Mark's
Sporting a powerful attack of Aditya Shivaswamy, Ethan Bosita, Sohum Sukhatankar, and Vardhan Agnihotri, St. Mark's is so far the only Texas team to have beaten Kinkaid, doing so back in October. I have only played against them once this year so I don't know much about their splits but they have looked extremely strong and the stats are legit. Their B team of Will Bowers, Arnav Lahoti, Jeremey Mau, and Christian Neisler is also scarily good (notably containing no Seniors) and would've likely finished in the top 5 at State had they played D1.

Strake
The 2nd place team at State, Strake has put up impressive lines at a number of tournaments and, just this past Saturday, beat DCC twice on their road to winning the Texas Invitational. Balanced as always, Dwight says answers in a number of categories correctly in the original language, Justin gets crazy amounts of AmHist and more, Max has taken getting beaten by Owen Gibbs to a Jazz question personally and is also amazing at Science, and Daniel is very strong in lit. Strake is (once again) a force to be reckoned with.

Cinco
Often underrated IMO by the online quizbowl community, Cinco more than deserves their 28th place ranking on Groger Ranks. Tamim might be the best history specialist in the state except for Cole, Robbie has frustrated me many times this year with great buzzes on lit, Dimitris is great on Science and Myth, and Hayden provides high level support across the distribution. They have the potential to upset a lot of teams at HSNCT.

Heights
For over a year our goal has been simple: get me support. This year we notably tried the "Bryce Rule" quota and while I feel the rest of the team has improved (Brayden in particular has shown a lot of growth in Physics and Owen has also gotten better at Science while staying productive in Geo and Trash), it's still not as much as we were hoping for. Like last year, we will be riding or dying primarily on how far my humanities (and maybe Bio) buzzes can take us.

LASA
They have only played Kickoff in October and Yuletide Celebration in December (the stats from which can only be accessed at texasquizbowl.org for some reason) but looked solid at both so I'll be interested to see how much they've improved since then. Zachary Suri leads their attack and is a solid history-based generalist. They also have Beck, Miguel, and Liesl who combined to beat me at the Texas State German Contest's trivia competition.

Plano West
A team we have played closely multiple times this year, Jesse is cracked at all Fine Arts and very solid on a number of other categories. Randy consistently provides around 40ppg and Aaryan and William are both capable of providing him with support as well.

That rounds out the Texas teams attending Nats that are currently in the Groger top 100. I wish the best of luck to all y'all as well as these other schools sending teams to an upcoming National tournament: Bellaire, Carnegie Vanguard, Westside (I love seeing that HISD representation), Seven Lakes, Greenhill, Cy-Fair, Eastlake, Irvin, Jefferson, Jordan, St. John's, St. Thomas, and Ysleta.

[AKKOLADE]

We're coming down to the last few days for it, but if any from Texas wants to play NASAT this year, please check out this thread for info. We'd love to have you represented.